More than a thousand people turned out Saturday, April 5 in SeaTac, for a spirited rally that started at SeaTac’s Angle Lake Park and concluded with a march on the nearby Federal Detention Center. The action in south King County, a working-class neighborhood with a large immigrant population, was part of a day of nationwide protests.
Speeches kicked off the event with teachers, students, unionists, immigrant rights organizers, and SeaTac City Council members taking the stage. Unique among the dozens of protests across Washington State, the rally was initiated by union members. Organizers included teachers from the Highline Education Association and classified school staff with Teamsters Local 763, who feel firsthand the devasting attacks on public education and on immigrant and trans students in their schools.
Rally-goers cheered loudly to calls for fightback and solidarity against Trump’s attacks on education, students, public workers and services. As the rally ended, protesters spilled out of the park and onto the street, marching down International Boulevard with chants of “Melt ICE” and “Shut it down” as they headed for SeaTac’s Federal Detention Center. Waving banners and hundreds of homemade signs, marchers were cheered on by drivers, shoppers and small businesses along the route.
Organized Workers for Labor Solidarity (OWLS) initiated the action, which was also co-sponsored by A. Philip Randolph Institute, Seattle; Seattle Caucus of Rank-and-File Educators; Radical Women; and Seattle Rideshare Drivers Association. A wide-ranging list of more than 23 endorsers, including the Washington State Labor Council, MLK Labor and numerous unions and community organizations united around demands to “Melt ICE, Fund Public Schools, Support Immigrant and Trans Students, Defend Public Workers and Services.”
OWLS leader and emcee Annaliza Torres explained that her group initiated the rally call, recognizing the need for mutual defense. “Today’s action is a step towards building a united front of workers, labor and community that we need to fight back together,” she told the crowd. Joining her as co-emcee was Tori Westman, Chair of the Women’s Committee, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 46.
The stories and calls to action by rally speakers reflected the widespread impact of Trump’s actions. Paula Lukaszek, President of Washington Federation of State Employees Local 1495, spoke about a Filipina lab tech at the University of Washington who was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and is now imprisoned at the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma. She also spoke of students having visas pulled as punishment for exercising their free speech rights, including Mahmoud Khalil at Columbia University. “We need to get all the universities to fight back,” in response to ICE detentions of campus workers and students, she said.
High School students and educators painted a picture of struggles unfolding in public schools. Jebb Binns, President of the Highline Education Association, talked about recent successful efforts to turnout educators for schoolboard meetings to counter MAGA voices pushing their reactionary agenda. Jurnee Robinson, student body president of Tyee High School, poetically expressed the fear of Hispanic and LGBTQ students being transformed through the power of solidarity. “I have hope for the world I was promised when I was a little girl,” she said. “The land of the free, home of the brave. The same brave standing in front of me today.”
Event co-leader Gabriel Prawl, President of APRI-Seattle and a veteran activist in the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, recalled the historic struggles of African American leaders, such as Dr. Martin Luther King and A. Philip Randolph. “We are still fighting,” he declared. And if these leaders were alive today, they “would be doing the same thing we are doing today, organizing and mobilizing for change.”
Rufina Reyes, Director of La Resistencia, urged the crowd to “help close Tacoma’s infamous Northwest Detention Center,” by contacting elected officials. Calling the center a “modern-day concentration camp,” she described worsening conditions for more than 1,400 detainees.
Christina López, representing the Freedom Socialist Party, asked the crowd, “does anyone have faith the Democratic Party will stop Trump?” A roaring “No!” met her query. “We need a labor party that will fight for us,” Lopez said, calling for an end to student debt, fully funded education, universal health care and open borders.
